NEWARK, N.J. — A former aide to the mayor of Jersey City has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in New Jersey’s largest corruption sweep, the first defendant among 44 arrested to be sentenced.

Guy Catrillo was an aide to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and a planning and zone board official. He was sentenced Friday in federal court.

Catrillo pleaded guilty last fall to attempted extortion for accepting $15,000 in bribes from a government witness posing as a crooked developer in the case known as Operation Big Rig. He had faced 18 to 24 months under terms of a deal with prosecutors. The maximum sentence he faced was 20 years.